When I was younger, one of my favorite things to do to kill time was to skim through an encyclopedia. I would pick up a random letter from the shelf, (It was usually one of the middle ones) and I'd flip through it. I didn't know what I was looking for. Most of the time, I was merely admiring the glossy images. It may sound odd, but it was fun. It was unintentional learning.
In this day and age, one could look up various facts and images with minimal effort. It's not the same at all though. There is a part of me that believes accumulating knowledge that was is cheating. That if you can get information via the click of a button, then you didn't earn it. I know it's an old and outdated way of thinking. I can't exactly help it though. I respect technology. I enjoy how it has made my life easier, but anyone who has used an encyclopedia before the internet would agree with me. There's just something about having the material in your hands. With that said, we are using the microfiche. It is noisy, and by all means it's counterproductive. I don't care so much about the latter. We don't need to be productive today. Today is a trip down memory lane. We look up random articles from our birth years. (1985 and 1990) We don't find too much other than "Silence of the Lambs" won Best Picture in 1990, and the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl in 1985. Basically facts we already knew. I could dig deeper, but I don't want to. Not right now at least. Facts and information will come when they are supposed to. At this moment I just want to enjoy a piece of history.
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